


Spirits and Seeds

by stranger_thanfiction



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: ATLA References, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Missing Scene, aang as spirit guide, in between s3 and s4 of lok, no beta we die like men, talks about life, this hurt to write, we were truly robbed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:21:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25641247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stranger_thanfiction/pseuds/stranger_thanfiction
Summary: Aang gives his ward a long overdue visit, and a talk about life.(aka I listened to "Leaves from the Vine" and got super sad about Aang's legacy)
Relationships: Aang & Korra (Avatar), Aang/Katara (Avatar)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 98





	Spirits and Seeds

**Author's Note:**

> We were ROBBED of this interaction, and it's been living rent free in my brain for weeks since I finished LOK. (I'm not a fan of any of the Gaang's characterizations, except maybe Toph, but that's a long conversation for another time. This fic stays mostly canon compliant. Korra is staying with Katara for my sanity's sake :) also perception plays a large role in this piece. I love Aang, and Korra, but they are human.)
> 
> As always, if you liked this fic, please comment, kudos, or whatever, because those are like an extra large triple shot latte on a cold winter day :) if you enjoyed this, check out my other works or follow my tumblr @sokkas-swordgays. Enjoy!

Korra rolls to her side, groaning with frustration. The lamplight from outside reflected on the ice of Katara’s small sealskin hut, and refracted off the unopened letter from Asami. 

An abnormal chill runs through the Avatar, reaching down into her bones. Not for the first time, she wishes that her legs would magically start working again so that she could at least go get a blanket. 

She spies her wheelchair resting across the room. 

“I could use some spirit world magic, Aang,” she jokes listlessly to the empty room. 

Korra slowly runs her hands over her face. 

“Or just, any connection to the spirit world, at all,” she says flatly, “you know, I can’t connect to the previous Avatars, I can’t connect to Raava.”

Korra can feel her heart begin to race, memories of her defeats flying before her eyes. 

“I was so, so stubborn that I let Amon take my bending, I was so weak that I let Unalaq open the portals, I broke the Avatar cycle, I-I-”

Her fight with Zaheer flashes before her. Her muscles ache with phantom pains that healed months before, but her throat constricts, as if he was here now, taking away her breathing. 

Korra exhales sharply, attempting to break her train of thought. Her chest clenches and her eyes burn with the pinpricks of panicked tears as her eyes dart around the room, her mind not willing to sense that she’s safe.

“ _I failed._ ” she chokes out to no one.

Her breathing grows laboured, and she presses the edges of her hands into her eyes. 

“I failed.”

“So what?” a voice calls.

Korra shoots up in bed, her hair flying around her face.

“Who’s there?” she looks around with trepidation, “Master Katara?”

She hears a scoff.

“You would know if it was Katara,” the disembodied sound retorts, “Toph did always call me Twinkletoes.”

Korra’s blood freezes.

“Aang?”

Suddenly, a ghost like figure materializes on the edge of the room, a tall man with a dark brown beard and blue arrow tattoos. He pauses his playing with a set of marbles to look over at the teen girl.

“Hi, Korra. It’s been a while.”

He gives her a gentle smile. She blinks in return.

“Did Katara give me cactus juice?” she mutters, hands running through her hair, “am I officially going crazy?”

She points at his figure. 

“And you, you definitely shouldn’t be here. I’m hallucinating, I have to be. I broke the cycle! I cut off our connection, there’s no way for me to talk to you!”

Korra slouches.

“Trust me, I’ve been trying.”

Aang gives her a pained smile. 

“I know.”

His figure breezes over to the very edge of the bed and sits on the corner. Korra could swear that she felt a bump against her leg, but she chalked it up to the confusion of the moment. 

“At least I didn’t fail at summoning you,” she mutters, looking down at her hands, “but this is definitely some kind of fever dream that I’m going to have to explain to Katara tomorrow morning.”

The middle aged looking spirit chortles.

“I had nightmares for days before the Eclipse Invasion about forgetting my pants and having to take an algebra test before my first attempt at fighting Fire Lord Ozai. Trust me, she’s heard more outrageous things than you speaking to her husband.”

Korra stares back, horrified, but the former Avatar laughs at the memory. 

“So this is a dream?” 

Aang tilts his head thoughtfully. 

“It’s whatever you need this to be now, Korra. I would’ve sent Jinora, but, frankly, I didn’t get to do as much Avatar guidance-” he punctuates the phrase with goofy hand gestures, “as I would’ve liked. I mean, even Avatar Kuruk got to guide Kyoshi, even though she didn’t take his advice.”

Korra snorts but looks down, knowing this is partly from her inability to connect to her Avatar state.

“I’m sorry. It’s my fault that you can’t spirit guide, and it’s my fault that I can’t talk to them, or you, now. I’m just another failed Avatar.” she states, her cheeks burning with embarrassment. 

“You aren’t a failed Avatar,” Aang responds, puzzled, “you’ve just made mistakes.”

Korra scoffs, crossing her arms across her chest. 

“Well, that’s easy for you to say, Mr. Restorer of Peace,” she rants, “I wasn’t allowed to make mistakes. The world needed a perfect avatar. They needed someone like you, or Tenzin, but instead they got me.”

If Korra could pull her knees up to her chest, she would. Instead she settles for hugging her middle tightly. 

Aang sighs. 

“Regardless of what the world would have you think, I’m not perfect. I never was. I made plenty of mistakes. Just ask my children.”

Korra frowns. 

“They love you.”

Aang’s spirit shrugs. 

“I know, but they resent some of the mistakes I’ve made. You don’t get to decide how people remember you. If they find comfort in their anger about their upbringing, or believe that I favored any of them over the other two, well, I wish they wouldn’t, but I understand why they feel that way.”

Korra raises an eyebrow. 

“Did you know that the element I struggled the most with was fire?” he questions, changing the subject.

Korra confusedly shakes her head.

“No, I was always told it was earth that was your most difficult to master.”

Aang nods, smiling at the memory of Sokka stuck in the rocks and Toph’s demanding training. 

“It was definitely hard, but no, fire was my biggest struggle.”

“Training was much different for me, in ways that no other avatar had ever experienced,” he begins.

“It was hard to find masters for any of the elements, and even harder to find someone willing to teach the Avatar, especially when it came to firebending. Sokka, Katara, and I met my first firebending teacher before I even began learning waterbending.”

Korra’s brow furrows. 

“But I thought Fire Lord Zuko was your teacher?”

Aang nods.

“Yes, but he was much later. Back then, he was still hunting us to regain _his honor_ ,” Aang says in a weird, throaty voice, then laughs at a joke that Korra doesn’t understand. 

He clears his throat. 

“But, no, my first firebending teacher was a runaway soldier from the Fire Nation, and he emphasized control and discipline."

"You're the definition of control and discipline, so why was it hard?" Korra gestures outwards. 

Aang sighs, looking down at his hands. 

"The monks taught me these things from a young age, as you know, but few understand how much I had to reign in my own emotions and temper for the sake of the world." 

Korra squints.

"But you're an air nomad, aren't you all peaceful?"

Aang laughs. 

"You've studied under my son, you must understand that it takes work. The air nomads are peaceful by choice, but we are-we _were_ all still human. Air nomad culture called for us to let go of these emotions in favor of enlightenment, but I was the Avatar," at this he looks over at the wall where Korra knows Katara is sleeping on the other side, "I could not detach completely from the world, and that included my anger."

Both Avatars look at the floor. A beat of silence follows. 

"I was a young child. I struggled with the Avatar state because my anger, if left on its own, could be dangerous and disastrous. I nearly destroyed the Southern Air Temple when I found the ruins of my people. I became a giant spirit and destroyed a city trying to defend against the Fire Nation."

Korra tilts her head.

"I've been there," she muses, thinking back to her battle with Unavaatu.

"But what does that have to do with your firebending?"

"Firebending requires control, but one different from airbending. The source comes from within the bender that is then controlled. If you are too scared, or excited, or angry, you will quickly lose control over your inner fire."

Korra nods in understanding.

"Under Jeong Jeong, I was able to bend fire, but on my first attempt, I accidentally burned Katara.”

Korra’s jaw drops. Fire was the element she felt closest to, aside from her native waterbending. It was always her go-to element of choice; her fire was always burning, or at least it was before Zaheer. She couldn’t imagine how she would feel accidentally burning one of her friends. 

“How did you get over it?” she asks dazedly. 

“Zuko and I took a life changing field trip involving sludge, an egg, and the dragon dance,” he explains, elaborating no further, before smiling sadly.

“As for Katara, she forgave me because she understood that my intentions were not to harm her. I spent much of my waking life with her; throughout the years, we have both said and done things we regretted, and we have learned from our mistakes."

At that, Korra looks over at the stack of letters from Mako and Bolin, and the newest letter from Asami. She thinks back to her fights with her friends, with her family, with Tenzin, and wonders if maybe her own flame has caused many of her own mistakes.

"So, I should meditate and calm my inner fire?" she questions aloud, causing Aang's face to scrunch in amusement. 

"You would benefit from some mindfulness, yes, but that's not what I mean."

"We are the bridge between the Spirit World and the humans. This means that we are the best, and worst, of both. You are allowed to make mistakes, Korra, but you cannot let your anger or your grief overwhelm you."

Korra looks down, feeling the pinpricks of tears rise in her eyes once again. 

"Contrary to popular belief, Katara could be just as angry as I could. She actually released me from the iceberg because Sokka said something sexist. We both carried around our loss and anger for a long time after the war, but eventually we learned to forgive ourselves and each other for our mistakes. We worked as a hard as we did because we wanted the world that followed us to be better than the one we came from.”

He gets a far off look in his eye, as if he was remembering something long forgotten. 

Korra stares at him, confused about the point of this talk. 

“My children, unfortunately, carry anger for their upbringing. Bumi and Kya feel as though they were not as important to me as Tenzin because they were not airbenders. I was so happy to have an airbending child. When I held him as a baby, I was so thrilled to have someone to share my dying culture with. That is my mistake, for not showing them that I loved them all equally. I could not be prouder of the people they have become."

Aang smiles tightly, tears forming in his eyes. 

"My daughter doesn't realize it, but she is carrying on the air nomad culture within her travels and care for others. She is a testament to the air nomad philosophy, and is the most perfect blend of Katara and I's personalities. And Bumi, he is making his namesake proud in defending our city and family. Even though he drove his siblings and mother up a tree, he and I would always get into mischief."

He coughs. Korra watches him discreetly wipe his eyes before continuing.

"Tenzin felt burdened over his duty to rebuild the air nation once I left. I imparted everything I knew to him, but in the end it was not enough. While not an intentional mistake, the genocide of the airbenders is something that I unfortunately played a part in, even though I had to make peace with it long ago." 

Aang sighs once again.

"My children are a part of Katara and I’s legacies, even though I know they wish they weren’t. They unfortunately adopted some of our anger, despite none of them carrying an inner flame like firebenders do. My triumphs, and my mistakes, live on through them.”

Korra frowns, shaking her head.

“Okay, so maybe the Avatar sucks with relationships and emotions, but at least you’ve never unleashed hell on the world like I have.”

Aang levels her a look. 

“I disappeared for one hundred years, only to return and die not even a year later. And, when _I_ died, we thought the Avatar cycle was severed. For good,” he states blandly. 

Korra blinks in disbelief.

“ _Y_ _ou_ broke the Avatar cycle?”

Aang nods solemnly, his hand drifting to his back absentmindedly. 

“Azula, Zuko's sister, struck me with lightning while I was in the Avatar state. The only reason I survived was because of Katara.”

“Same,” Korra responds hollowly, feeling phantom pains in her legs once again. 

His expression softens, glancing at the wall again. 

“My legacy is a large one, that unfortunately glosses over my shortcomings and mistakes,” he continues, standing to face the same wall, where he rests his right palm.

“I left large shoes to fill.”

Korra snorts. 

Aang turns to face the wheelchair, pain in his eyes. 

“I never wanted this for you,” he starts, gesturing around the room, “I wanted you to be well-trained, to be _safe_ , to not be constantly looking over your shoulder.”

She laughs drily, gesturing in the direction of the chair. 

“A level of caution would have been useful.”

Aang arches his brow, making the arrow bend. 

“Maybe, but I forgot the most important part of being the Avatar is that you fight for people, for all people. You don’t understand who you’re fighting for until you live among them. In the past, the Avatar would travel the world during their training, immersing themselves in the culture of each nation. Even I spent time amongst the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation before the iceberg, and travelled the world afterwards during the war."

“Having you grow up isolated on a compound kept you safe, but it was not the answer. It’s the last, but most grievous of my mistakes that still affect the world today.”

Were she not so exhausted, Korra would be offended. Instead, she contorts her face.

“It’s no one’s mistake,” she starts calmly, surprising herself, “everyone was doing what they thought was best.”

"Even me, I was just trying to be the savior for everyone, from the moment I left the compound. My logic was flawed, but, I had good intentions."

“Even though I had the worst execution,” she tacks on softly, embarrassment flooding through her at the memory of her anger at her father.

Aang floats back over to the bed and sits closer, somehow grasping her arms. 

“You’re growing,” he smiles proudly, “you’re learning from your mistakes, which is something that everyone, bender and non-bender, Avatar or not, must learn to do. We cannot change our decisions, but we can change how we deal with the next conflict.” 

He sighs, studying her face.

“You’ve handled more threats in one lifetime than most Avatars see in three. You are more than the Avatar, Korra."

"Am I?" she groans, growing frustrated, "because I am useless in that chair. Without being the Avatar, I don't know who I am!"

She folds her arms across her chest.

"The world doesn't need me anymore. I can see that clearly now. All I've done as the Avatar is hurt people and ruined lives. _My_ life doesn't have a purpose if I'm not out there, protecting people!"

Aang frowns deeply, pausing for a moment to think. 

"What do you want, Korra?" he asks quietly.

She opens her mouth to speak, but he interrupts. 

"Not as the Avatar, but you, Korra of the Southern Water Tribe, what do you want?"

Korra snaps her jaw shut, frazzled by the question. Her mind blanks. 

Her eyes dart to Asami's letter, the bright red seal lying unopened. 

Aang follows her eyes to the letter. His face softens with understanding. 

"You're worth more than what you can give to other people. You deserve love and to find peace, too," he says kindly. 

He stands, and moves to the floor, sitting in a meditation pose. If not for the spirity glow, Korra thinks he looks nearly identical to Tenzin. 

Aang closes his eyes, exhaling deeply. 

“Here’s my wisdom to you, Korra: legacy is like planting seeds in a garden that you never get to see. The Avatar cycle is a series of seeds being planted over time. You are in an uncomfortable stage of growth right now. Embrace the discomfort. Embrace your pain, your loss, your sense of helplessness, and look forward to the change it brings. Only then will you find peace within yourself.” 

He pauses for a moment, bracing for something. When nothing happens, he pops one eye open. 

“Also,” he whispers in a less formal tone, “I’m proud of you.”

Before his phrase even finished, the former Avatar’s spirit is sucked back into oblivion, leaving Korra staring at the space it had just previously occupied, wondering what the hell just happened. 

~

The next morning, the Avatar is roused awake by her elderly master for her physical therapy. Korra cannot remember what exactly she dreamed of, but only that she awoke feeling more rested, yet still conflicted, than she had in a long time. 


End file.
